Diary of an Osean Navy Pilot
by JohnnyFrost
Summary: A personal account of the PacificCircum Conflict from a Osean Naval Air Force pilot.
1. Opening Moves

_**Diary of an Osean Navy Pilot**_

_The Pacific-Circum Conflict was a much bigger war than people often realize. People believe the war was fought only in Yuktobania. Yet there is one theater of war that often goes under the radar. The Verusan Theater; it is often called **The Forgotten Front** Verusa itself is no stranger to conflict, having endured some 7 wars in 50 years. Constantly changing hands between despots, fascists, communists, republicans, and the like, Yuktobania managed to establish a peaceful government there. Allied to the Yuktobanian Republic, the country stationed some 100,000 soldiers there to help train Verusa's Republican Guard(250,000 strong) in early 2010. However, economic problems and conflicting military interests in the government slowed process. When the war started, the Yukes found themselves in a confusing situation with an ill equipped, poorly trained army it had no choice but to send into battle to defend the home front. Versua itself had little strategic importance, but it housed a great deal of arms and supplies to support the war effort. Yet morale was low, as the Yukes and Verusans found themselves suddenly in a war neither wanted to fight._

_Osea was not blind to these developments. The possibility of having to fight in two countries at once seemed unthinkable, but it had to be done. The Yukes in Verusa were considered enough of a threat to justify additional military action. Also, it was believed that the ships and planes that attacked St. Hewlett and Sand Island on September 27, 2010 actually came from bases in Verusa, not Yuktobania. Thus began Osea's operation to curtail this threat, codename Operation Anaconda II. The Osean 7th Fleet consisting of the aircraft carriers OFS Neptune and Pisces, was rerouted from its patrol in the eastern seas of Antarctica to begin this operation. Over the next three months, Versua and the Pacific Osean would turn into a violent battlefront that would involve ships from nearly four nations. But the real unsung heroes of this operation and the war itself were the Navy pilots of the OFS Neptune and Pisces. They would fly nearly 5,000 sorties from October to December 2010. One of them was 25-year old Lt.Peter Moore of the OFS Neptune. He would fly over 50 combat missions and shoot down 35 enemy aircraft, the third highest scoring Osean Ace of the war. Moore was known for his intense dedication in combat as well as his ruthlessness. He was regarded as a friendly person, perfectionist and patriot. But he was also known to have a cold, callous nature about the enemy and its people. He was also known for his outspoken dislike of the media and certain legends of the war, and what he called their "unnecessary worship of the Four Wings of Sand Island"._

_**Part I: Opening Moves**_

September 27, 2010- My name is Lt. Peter Moore; they call me "Howler" or "Howling Pete". Why start this way? I don't really know. I don't really care who finds this. I hope my wife gets it, but what does it matter if I'm gone anyway? I trained with the A-4 Skyhawk, F-14D, and now they've given me a brand spanking new F-35C to play with.

I got a wife, Bethany, 2-year old Peter Jr., two good friends Dave "Shark" Owens, and Will "Stallion" Laversby. I am with the 1st Squadron, A flight, aboard the OFS Neptune. We're the only squadron that has these new planes in full. 25 of us. There's Shark's girlfriend, Mary "Candy" Weaver, John "X-Ray" Wright, Milton "Alien" Cartwright, my squadron leader old Captain Dullen or "Python" as we call him.

I got 2 brothers in the Marines, Jay and Darien, 3/5(3rd regiment, 5th Marines). Darien is good friends with the brother of one my squad mates, Jenny "Piper" Glaas. Well, that's enough about me. The only thing I can add, is that now there's a part of me that wants to crawl into bed and forget the concept of a war. However, I shut that part up like 10 minutes ago. As soon as get away from this damn cold Antarctic...look out Yukes...the Neptune's coming!

October 1, 2010- We finally got to fly these things around. These F-35s are very nice. Their very easy to handle. I can't wait to try these out in combat. Stallion kept thinking we were gonna hit something. Everyone's all jumpy. Of course, we have no idea what we are doing, what the battle plan is, or whatever. We were deployed some 4 weeks before the war started. Now we're on a beeline to nowhere as I see it. Bethany tells me she's worried about me. We're not even in combat yet. I was worried about my bros with the naval attack and all, but they're alright.

I remember that Squirrel was all anxious to go bomb something. Like a hyper kid of sorts. We're getting there, and getting anxious as well. We're somewhere in the middle of the ocean, but I don't know where. I really want to try my plane out in the real deal.  
October 3, 2010- I can't believe it. Only like a week into the war and 2 carriers from the 3rd Fleet are gone. Oh man, what a disaster. Bethany does not understand the scope of things. I was making a big deal about this to her. She doesn't realize that we only have 12 carriers in this navy. That's like 20...that's a huge loss.

Now, I'm really pissed off. It seems this is gonna be tougher than we thought. But I like tough situations. There is no better time to show what you're made of.

The higher ups are getting antsier as well. They're putting a lot of pressure on us. We're going over all our planes' details ad nauseam. But anything beats sitting around doing nothing. Some guys are getting paranoid. Some wonder if we're going to be attacked before we even reach our destination. Now what are the chances of them getting though our fleet? Come on.

October 5, 2010-We got our briefings on something called Operation Anaconda II. Apparently, the Yukes have stashed a lot of weapons and troops in Verusa, along with Verusan loyalist fighting along side them. Our fleet has been divided into several Task Forces. Task Force 66 has been assigned to attack targets around a place called Isiba. Task Force 89, consisting of the carrier Pisces will attack targets around Baseran.

We also got our first piece of action. Our squadron took off at 0500 hrs to attack some place; they never told us exactly what. Shark's on my right, Stallion's on the left, Alien's on the tail. We had to establish top cover, while everyone else went in with JDAMs(Joint Attack Direct Munitions) to blow up the facility. Sure enough, we get to the coast and we run through a flak belt as expected. Then the flak stops, the facility's in sight, then fighters show up. Versuan fighters with those ugly brown paint schemes. Mig-21s. This was too easy. They were the first planes we trained against in ACE school(Air Combat Exercise).

There were like 4 of them in the first group. So were just running these poor guys down. I riddled two with machine guns, didn't even need to use missiles. Alien was newer to the squadron, and was a bit nervous to move in. He didn't get a kill, but got some vital combat experience. The targets exploded in a simultaneous set of fiery booms. We circled around the see our target go up the same way. Drinks and congratulations was in order and we headed home. No losses; total unequaled victory. Of course, Bethany's first question when I told her about today was, "What's a Mig-21?"

October 8, 2010- We've been getting comfortable with actual combat over the last few days. I kinda like this interdiction thing. You gotta stop em before it starts. So we took off today to stop enemy troop movements into Yuktobania. We head to a place near the border called Dawn Acaust. I love these JDAMs. B Flight that went ahead of us, to establish top cover . Our squadron leader tells us were going to drop the bombs at our targets at once. So it took most of the excitement out of it.

Lock, drop, peel out. Another easy mission. However, a few fighters show up. But these are no mere Migs. Mig-29s, the universal dog fighter. But their moves were slow, almost hesitant. Must have been Verusan pilots. So lock on one, and X-Ray comes out of nowhere and steals my kill, the bastard. Stallion manages to get one while he was lower to the ground. He did this nice flip behind the fighter and shot him down. Then we spot some planes rolling in on us. We rise up and fire our missiles. My missile hit the second plane and it was gone. Stallion's hit the wing, and spun it to the ground. Then the guy tries to eject. Good idea...right. We just laughed our asses off.

October 10, 2010- We've been given the day off as the Pisces's air squadrons go to work. Bethany thinks I have all the fun, she is a nurse after all...okay, yeah I do. But I feel gulity about taking advantage of her lack of knowledge about the exhaustive details of air to air combat, so I answer her questions. I didn't tell her about the incident with the ejecting pilot. She would have been a bit miffed about that. Alien, Shark, and Candy didn't really find it funny either. So I keep my dark humor to my pen. Funny thing is these people love their jobs too. Hypocritical? Yes and no.

Alien and I are the only people in A Flight that are married. He was going on about how he met his wife in Verusa, and felt guilty about bombing it even though all her family was here. I didn't say anything. Well, it doesn't matter. They're not there now...are they?

October 12, 2010- We've stepped up the attacks now. We are trying to nail the factories and such. In some instances, these targets serve another purpose: as traps. We lost Screamer to one of these traps. They'd abandon the factory then put an ungodly amount of SAMs and flak guns there. The flak guns aren't a problem, but you can't really go low because of the SAMs. One hit his plane and he disintegrated. And he was no nugget, either. But he was only transferred in; I didn't get to know the guy. Now, I don't know what to feel.

In light of this, we got designated Wild Weasel teams now. C flight, 2nd Squadron serves this role. Thankfully, it isn't us. I would never be a Wild Weasel. That's really low job security. But you do what ya gotta do.

We encountered an allied fleet that was joining our task force. It was a Gothan Carrier group, GRS Delphi in the middle. The Gothans live like on the east side of Belka; they're the largest country of the all the territories there. They have a very decent, albeit underrated, air force. Hell, they launch F-16s off their carriers! That's pretty nice.

October 14, 2010- The edge of the fleet was attacked by a small group of ships. I was on deck at the time; nothing was taking off. I was talking to Shark at the time; I think we talked about some movie we saw. We hear alerts and we're running for our planes. While I was the catapult, there were some vibrations from incoming shells; their destroyers were firing at one ours. We get into the air, and I see a cruiser launching missiles at the enemy ships. There were no planes strangely enough. As we moved toward the enemy, one cruiser below us just explodes right below me. It was the Tiger; they nailed it in one shot. We climbed, then rolled in at Angels 10 to pelt the enemy ships with missiles. Some were intercepted but the majority of them hit their targets. I was happy my missile sunk one of their destroyers. Just seeing that thing tip over and blow up...

October 20, 2010- Over the last few days we've been just trolling the enemy, trying to get him up in the air since the Verusans can't fly for nothing. Our next major target was an airfield that had been giving us some problems. The Yukes were also using it as a base for their bombers. They, the brass, thought it was the base of the bombers that attacked Sand Island. _Like I care. Just give me the target_, I thought. We were feeling good though. But man did we ever hit some rough stuff. Our Wild Weasel team had to earn their money's worth. Flak, SAMs, ZSUs(AAA tank), fighters, the whole shabang. We're at Angels 8, just me and Stallion. I saw bandits at 9:00, so we roll left to engage. Now it was a game of chicken. We both fire, and they both hit their targets while we break immediately. We were laughing because it seemed like they'd missed. Then we're just looking for targets. All of the sudden, I see a plane trying to get off the ground. So I tell Stallion and he's like "He's all yours." So I get behind him and rake him with machine gun fire. Then it just crashed and rolled into the ground. I pull up and Stallion's like "Hell yeah!" I thought it was hilarious; poor guy didn't even make it off the runway. Suddenly, I got a fighter on my tail trying to take _me _out. So I break right, even though I'm only 400 ft. I climb to gain altitude, level off, and break while launching chaff. A missile barely missed me. Then Shark comes in and takes him out. Funny, there was no panic from me. I wasn't going crazy. I handled it smooth, real smooth. When I got back to the carrier, it was another successful mission. Then everyone's lifting me up on their shoulders, calling me an ace; we had quite the party. Ace pilot. That has a nice ring to it. I told Bethany the good news and she asks, "What's an ace?"

October 22, 2010- We're attacking Yuktobania for the first time. This is in support of the upcoming invasion or something. Or maybe it's a trick to waste bombs on a spot they think we'll land at then go somewhere else...Oh well. We're going to bomb the crap out one area of Yuktobania's southern coast for the next three days. It won't be a vacation spot for long. Bethany is trying to make me this celebrity back home. I keep getting cards and messages from her friends. It's a bit embarrassing, but it's good to know I have some support. Then again, from what Candy and Shark tell me, a lot of people back home aren't too happy about our invasion plans. Screw them. This is war, we were attacked. Get over it.

October 25, 2010- After 3 days and taking off 9 times to bomb remote outhouses in Yuke backcountry, we're finally given the day off. I'm so tired right now. I wonder if we are going to get attacked again? I wonder what Bethany and Junior are doing right now. Their probably out in the backyard, playing in the sandbox. Sleep beckons now though.

October 26, 2010- It seems the Verusans were trying to transport supplies and troops to Yuktobania. Well, those C-130s won't be doing anymore transporting. We took off this morning to intercept them. Python's at the front, and Shark and Stallion are on my left and right. There was also Silver and Chaos amongst us, from B Flight, flying near Candy and X-Ray's positions. We're at Angels 17, and the sun's just come up. It felt like a good day already. This engagement was so similar to one we studied in ACE. It was a textbook encounter; it was duck shoot in the sky. Well almost. The fighters did tie us up a bit, being that they were F-2s, planes with similar performance as our own planes. There were some close calls towards the end, but we all came back alive again. I got 2 fighters and one transport craft out of 5. This is just getting easier and easier. Shark and Stallion are now our squadron's next aces. Then there's Python. He's been around though for years and years; fought in the Belkan War and numerous other conflicts. Sometimes we just call him the "old man". He's getting close to retirement though, and few are madder at the enemy than him.

October 27, 2010- Everyone is worried. The enemy's fleet is on the move from the south. Supply planes and ships have been arriving all day. Additional allied ships have begun to arrive as well. We've got ships from Gotha and Gavaria with us. This enemy threat is putting the mainland invasion of Yuke country in 4 days. Oh boy.

November 1, 2010- Alarms were in full swing; battle stations were manned. An enemy fleet had come; they really wanted some payback for all the damage we've done over the last month. I never saw so many ships. It was total chaos; the Pacific Ocean was on fire. As ship and plane battled tooth and nail, we noticed the OFS Pisces come under attack. To lose that carrier would be disastrous, and we nearly did as it only managed to get up 9 planes because of battle damage. AWACS interjected often. We engaged and destroyed several enemy planes. I forget how many everyone got, but I got 3. C Flight's first ace,Turtle, was lost when he was hit by a missle and went crashing into another ship. The Oriskany(a real ship BTW) took a direct hit from a battleship and sunk. The battle became vicious. Versuan planes were attempting suicide attacks on the carrier Pisces. Suicide attacks...in this day an age. When the battle ended, my hand was shaking. Then enemy had merely withdrawn though. I wonder if...

November 2, 2010- I hope I can finish this. The enemy continued to attack. We battled the ships again, dodging AAA, SAM fire, missiles and such. We sank one destroyer and then we lost an Aegis cruiser as it launched the remainder of its missiles. It was one confusing mess. The attacks continued against the Pisces and finally it went down. We were so stretched out trying to defend the fleet. It took a torpedo hit then blew apart. The St. Marianne was a little more fortunate...

November 3, 2010- The invasion went well, our boys are ashore, and things are looking up. But we lost 12 ships in this battle over the past 2 and half days. We're down to 57 pilots from 65 originally. Our ship has taken damage, but not serious. The Pisces though is under the waves. As is the Falcon, Oriskany, St. Marianne, and others. I don't know how the allied units fared, but they probably did better than we did. The pilots that survived the Pisces are going to be integrated into our squadron. There's a Doug "Skip" Dawson, Noel "Silver" Messerschmitt, Jay "Footloose" Ellison, and Jack "Spider" Elliot. At least we're not getting nuggets, that's the last thing we need right now. There's a small island where command has set up a naval way station to repair ships, serve as command and control and such. We're pulling back to the island to repair, rest and re-arm. During the fighting, my plane was damaged pretty badly though, but I still kept fighting. I don't know what went though my head. But I managed to add 3 more kills bringing my total kill count to 15.

November 5, 2010- Oh man. I got to meet a legend today. The Gothan Naval Expeditionary Force has begun massing around the southern islands. It seems they are preparing for an invasion of their own. So all of the top scoring aces of the wing were called to the bridge and guess who's there...the Green Lantern himself. Col. Joachim van der Beek, whom I consider to be the greatest ace ever. Mobius One...give me a break. This guy got over 80 kills in the 7 months of the Belkan War, flew like what...150 combat missions. Took out some 300 targets on the ground. He and his squadron, JS 301(some 20 pilots) are responsible for 15 of all Belka's aircraft losses. That was over 650 planes out of about 4,000. Jeez. These guys got it _done_. His own wife's got 30 kills to her name. The lowest kill count was 17. That's insane. We studied their battles in training. It was like I was meeting a rockstar. He was a really nice guy. So we're talking and he asks me how many planes I've shot down. I tell him 15. So he's like, "Good job, keep it up." That was it. Kinda under spoken this guy is. I can only imagine how _his_ diary would look.

To be continued...


	2. Revenge

_**Part II: Revenge**_

November 9, 2010- Those Yuke sons of bitches! Bombing innocent people, but then those air force idiots did the same thing so…I wish I knew what was really going on. Despite our victory in the Pacific a week ago, the media keeps talking about those "Four Wings of Sand Island. If I have to hear one more thing about them...they, the media and 90 of the population that ain't in the Marines or Navy sees them as the only pilots in the world. Here's a headline for ya. Fuck Sand Island…bunch of showboats. But the Yukes are really pissed at us now. My brother tells me that on the first day, the Yukes didn't even bother to put up a fight. Now, they're all pissed off About time they showed some fighting spirit; I was getting bored.

November 10, 2010- Bethany talks to people where she works, and she ran into a female Air Force Pilot sometime yesterday. She was talking about all the degrees she had and everything she had to study. Aeronautical engineering my ass; you don't need that crap to fly an airplane. They think they're smarter than us...In other news, the Shark-Candy affair has continued to grow; as far as their concerned. Regardless, we're still under repairs, but we look to get back into combat sometime soon. Alien told me a story about this picture his wife took of him and his kid toasting coffee cups before we left 5 months ago. Apparently his son's was filled with grape trying to be like his dad. Isn't that sweet? Then I sat down just now and it hit me like a sledgehammer. Damn, I miss my son.

November 14, 2010- We've been on the move for the past several days. Apparently, the Yukes are increasing resistance in Versua. Well we can't have that can we? So I was talking to Stallion about how Bethany and I met, and he's all "You shouldn't have gotten married, you made a huge mistake, your kids are gonna cost a fortune and blah, blah, blah yada yada." On and on. I don't why I bother. He's a good friend but he has this wild, cocky side to him. The side that makes him so annoying sometimes. Playing pranks on everyone. He can be pretty hard to deal with. My wife hates him, well not really hate but dislikes intensely. I almost stopped drinking because of this guy. Is it really necessary to drink 6 beers in an hour?...I forgot to mention more bullshit about the Four Wings of Sand Island. Now their freaking superstars. Apparently, they...sunk a submarine. Wow. That _real _impressiveWe've destroyed 6. We've been busting our butts since October, taking casualties, shooting down planes, blowing up stuff. Yet, 4 pilots sink ONE submarine and their famous, give me a break.

November 15, 2010-Our next target was a oil refinery down further south. One of the longer missions we've done. We only had a small group up, 8 planes. Stallion, and Shark, as well as Spider, Silver, Candy, Angel and Python at the lead. Silver was pissed since she had to fly trail even though she'd been in combat since we have. However, she had yet to shoot down a plane. She was assigned the task of dropping a bomb on the facility. As we approached, we picked up enemy fighters at 3:00. Some six of them were gunning for us. So I and Shark peel off as well as Silver rolls into drop the JDAM; but her bomb malfunctions and it gets hung up. How the hell did that happen. So she's white hot pissed; it just isn't her day. She throws her plane towards us as Spider takes a try at it. Python notes about more enemy fighters coming in. So I shoot down one he tried to dive to get away. That was dumb move. Shark manages to down the other bugger, even though it took him 2 missiles to do it. Then Spider confirms a direct hit, and so does Stallion. Python manages to shoot down one on the north side and we're like "Good kill, boss." Then out of the damn blue, Silver rolls in and just goes to town on these fighters. She takes down 3 Tornados and 1 Mig-29. Wow. After we got back to the carrier, she just sort of fell out on the ground acting like she's on drugs or caffeine or something. I kinda feel bad for though, her parents were in the air force.

November 18, 2010- We've been in an "operational pause" for the last three days. Didn't we just have one? Oh well. So Bethany's telling me about the anti-war movement. Oh lord. Everyone's having doubts about the war. Saying we should have waited for diplomatic talks to conclude, the attacks on civilians. While I don't condone attacks on Yuke civilians, I don't really care about them either. Everywhere's a combat zone, leave! I hate to say this to Bethany, but we have no intention of liberating them. We're here to bomb the crap out of them. Let the Army worry about that. My brothers, who are both snipers, agree. Why is the enemy crying about it? They started it and they brought on themselves. It looks like Gothan ships are gathering for some big operation, but I don't know what.

November 21, 2010-My thinking about the war has been drifting ever since my talk with X-Ray about all the bombing. He kinda feels guilty; he's afraid one of those targets we hit may have been civilian. I don't want to kill civilians either, but we're just given coordinates. Just bomb it and go home. I need to get back to my one track mind. I can't be concerned with the "what ifs." My overall goal is to get home, which by now I would be had these idiots hadn't bombed us. Fuck them.

November 23, 2010- Some big invasion is upcoming. The Gothans are getting ready for a massive land invasion; 100,000 men and women...sweet fancy moses! Gotha has one of the largest percentages of women in the military at 42 percent. The Gothan XXVIII Corps and the XXXIX Corps are going to storm an undisclosed beach in Versua to take some undisclosed town on a date and time to be told. We're taking a backseat for once and we're gonna bomb everything before they land. Piper, with 4 kills to her credit, came up to me and told her brother had been killed in an ambush along with 18 other Marines. Her brother's name is Royce, my brother's friend. I'm to see if either of my brothers are amongst them. But no luck so far...bastards. There ain't gonna be a rock left in Versua that hasn't been bombed!

November 24, 2010-Darien was in fact killed in the ambush yesterday. I've dealt with loss before in the squadron and I've handled it very well. But now I'm between just unbelievable anger and depression. Well, now I'm mad. I feel like a nuclear bomb right now. This was just like the first time an enemy shot at me. I couldn't believe the audacity. An enemy shooting at...me? Now like a third of me is gone. Those bastards are gonna pay this!

November 26, 2010- Vengeance is sweet. We've been bombing the Gothan objective, the Anzia region. We are, according to brass, free to attack anything in Anzia. The civilians were given plenty of warning to leave the city. If they're still there...oh well. Revenge has pretty much the common theme across the squadron.; Chaos lost a brother, Piper lost a brother, Scarab lost a brother. Python then has the nerve to lecture us today on our motives; he tells us not to take our revenge out on everyone, although this is still war we have to keep a higher standard. Hypocrite. Telling us to go after the enemy as much as he does, then turns around and says this. Whatever. They brought it on themselves, regardless of how I feel. I did managed to scrape some kills, I shot down 3 Mig-25s.

November 27, 2010- The Gothans love incendiary bombs, even though we can't use Napalm anymore-thank you very much President Harling. Gothan F-2s lit up a troop concentration while we watched preparing to roll in with our payload. Shark was appalled, but Stallion and I were singing that one song by Darts of Pleasure, "Burn Baby Burn". I love that song. I also shot down a helicopter today; it was about 12 miles away. Amazing.

November 30, 2010- Versuan resistance toughened, but we rolled through that. I don't think there is an anthill left in Anzia or the surrounding areas. Everything's burning. The beach is littered with destruction. Piles of smoke are everywhere. Anzia itself is a pancake. I mean, the area is pretty dry, so there's big arid patches everywhere. There was a lot of stuff in Anzia. I hit 20 targets over 6 days. Gothans had A-4 Skyhawks and Rafale Ms dropping bombs as well; Skyhawks and Rafales...strange combo. But no one wants to hear about this, everyone wants to hear about the Sand Island pilot that was shot down. While tragic on a human level, as is any pilot lost, the media once again treats this a huge showcase. We've lost some 9 pilots since October. What about them? Where's the news report about them? Those guys are the real heroes; they would have done what that one guy did 9 times over.

December 1, 2010- Anzia...is dead. The Gothans took it just an hour ago, after running into practically no resistance. They were expecting a major battle, but found nothing. They captured hundreds of troops just scared stiff. They were crying and begging for mercy. I had no idea our bombing had that effect on the enemy. But we pounded those guys with everything. There was one place that literally looked like the moon. The bridges, the surrounding areas, the roads, the buildings, were cratered. We flew over the area today to provide any close air support. There was one road we just hammered again and again. It was this convoy of incoming reinforcements, and the road was just...unbelievable. We took a lot of pride in our destruction; well I did. The lines of POWs was endless. Yet we'd listen to Gothans on the ground...the ones that could speak Osean _correctly. _They were shocked at the destruction; shocked and appalled. There were no almost no friendly casualties, almost no action at all. It's war. I'm sure Darien would loved to see this.

December 4, 2010- The media is starting to get on my nerves. We watched a report about the Anzia campaign. The media was whining and saying things like, "This is just too horrible, and this has to stop and blah, blah, blah." Most of us just laughed our asses off. Shark wasn't so humorous. He just looked at it in all this contemplation. He couldn't believe all the devastation. He's like "I'm starting to hate this war now." I agree to an extent, but I channel my anger towards my enemies. That's how it works really. They were talking about how many Yuke soldiers didn't want to fight but had to do their jobs. I'd suppose we'd use that same rationalization if things were the other way around. But there's a part of me that just wants this to be over. I miss Bethany and Junior. It's 7 months to day when we were originally deployed. Yet I have no desire to explain this to either of them. They only know what they've have seen on TV. It's different world out here.


	3. Bethany's Banshee

_**Part III: Bethany's Banshee**_

December 6, 2010- We're being supplied and reinforced. Some replacements came, Cougar, Smoke, and Rubber. All of northeast Verusa is under our control. We're constantly trying to integrating the nuggets into our squadron. I can already tell how this is going to work out. Cougar's the smart, attentive, teacher's pet. Smoke is the dumb hotshot, and Rubber is the resident asshole. Well, actually Smoke is an asshole too by definition of a hotshot. A hotshot by my terms is an _deluded_ asshole. As in deluding himself into thinking he's a better pilot than he really is. He's watched too many movies. As for the war as a whole, the war is going well and looks to be over soon. We're moving south to keep pushing the Yukes back to the coast.

December 10, 2010- I hate liberal extremists. My wife runs into one of these wastes of space. It was just a normal conversation then she mentioned me and what I do. He goes off on this tirade about how we're murderers and amoral. All that crap. Saying we had no right to be over here. Liked we signed up for Yuktobania! He was one of these people we only just found out was picketing one of our fellow pilots funerals. I told Bethany I would happily bail her out if she took a hammer and slapped him with it. In other tragic news, the Sand Island Pilots were shot down. Funny, I kinda miss hating them. Also, they were thinking about scaling back our bombing raids. Why! We've saved more lives than we've taken...I think. Our strategy has been extremely effective. This whole thing was supposed to end the war quicker.

December 11, 2010- It seems this war is going to take a while. That operation to seize Cinigrad failed _horribly_. It's strange, up until now there wasn't much to fight left in the enemy. I've decided to nickname my F-35. Hmm...decisions, decisions. Maybe the "Death Scythe." No, too cliche. "Blood Reaver"...nah.

December 15, 2010- As the fleet gathers for the next move, I have finally finished with the redecorating on my plane. My plane is no longer serial number OSFX10495, but rather, "Bethany's Banshee." It has a nice ring to it. Piper, who is a very good artist, helped me paint a picture of her on the side of the fighter. Now when I go look at it, I have more pride in my work and what I've done. The whole squadron's doing the same thing. Beth's really flattered. So I called her yesterday on her birthday and she got all giddy. I couldn't really send her anything because there isn't a mall on the boat. The brass have been real edgy lately, but I don't know why.

December 16, 2010- So I shot down two fighters at a range of 14 miles with a pair of AMRAAMs...oh man, I just found out that a huge operation for 2nd Squadron has failed. Apparently, they were targeting an large enemy facility but it was more heavily defended than originally expected. Some good guys got blown away like Axel and Turtle. It looks like the enemy still has some fight left in him.

December 17, 2010- There was an interesting juxtaposition of events today. Shark proposed to Candy today and 30 minutes later we get a briefing on our objective: the same one that tore up 2nd Squadron. It seems the Yukes are manufacturing some kind of special missile or something there; some secret weapon. Well, we can't have that can we? It's going to be the longest mission we've done. Their saying this is gonna be the third try. Third try? Up until now I've maintained an quiet air of invincibility, especially after Anzia. It kinda went away, but I need to put it up again. I can feel the end of the war coming. I've got to fly carefully, no more hero stuff. If I can survive this, I can live to the end of the war. I know it. Also, of all times, they tell me I'm up for a promotion. Cold comfort. Our mission jumps off in 6 hours. I handed my "final" letter to Dot, who is a neighbor of mine and a member of second squadron. Sleep peacefully my love. May you not awake to find my death's notice at your doorstep...

December 19, 2010- My hand aches, my body is worn out, and my eyes hurt as I struggle to write this. After a long flight, and only our second mid air refueling, we arrived at our target. This place was massive. I remember the first words said after our radio silence. Alien says, "Holy shit." Then just a wall of SAMs came after us. Our Wild Weasels go to work, but there are just an enormous amount of air to air defenses. The nuggets were petrified. It showed when Rubber got hit and was destroyed. We fanned out to try to eliminate as much anti-air defenses as possible. The flak guns were almost impossible to deal with. I stayed to the outside. They'd truly pulled out all the stops when suddenly the flak stopped and enemy fighters showed up. As we tried to drop our bombs as quickly as possible, we found ourselves in combat with better planes and pilots. I think they were Su-35s. One of the buggers got behind our squadron leader. He couldn't shake him. I was too far away to help. X-Ray comes to his assistance, but it was too late. He was done for. Not 30 seconds later, I hear another dreaded sound; the sounds of Stallion's screams as he was hit by a SAM and crashed into the ground. My blood became ice. My new objective now was to down every single SOB in the sky. Smoke goes down. I locked onto one plane, really far away and I fired. It barely hit the plane, but it was enough to make it go down. A second plane passes over to the right. He climbs as the missile comes toward him. He drops chaff, so I close in with machine guns. Then all of the sudden, as I fire, a second plane streaks into my cross hairs from 11:00 high. I ended up by fluke shooting down both planes. Skip, Chaos, Piper, and Comet all come in dropping everything they have on the facility. By now, most of the air defenses have been shut down. We swarmed that place. We were reinforced by Gothan fighters and elements of the Osean 9th Bomb Wing. Now I sit alone, wondering how the afterlife is treating the fallen.

December 20, 2010- After the death of Python and the others, everyone went on a tear. I ended up with 4 kills. Silver managed to get 3 planes, making her an ace. Cougar managed to get 3, Angel really went on a tear and shot down 4 planes bringing her kill count to 6. Shark got 4 bringing his kill total up to 16. Candy brought her kill count to 10. Alien goes from 10 to 13. Spider made his first 2 kills. X-Ray did manage to shoot down the plane that got Python bringing his count to 9. And we're still not done yet. They sent us back into combat today. Central Verusan defenses have hardened significantly. We got into a few scraps in the air, I managed to scrape one kill from that. The Gothans are having a hard time dislodging the Yukes. A Commander Matthews has taken command of the squadron or Orca, as he likes to be called. However, things have been very difficult lately. We lost 6 pilots yesterday. Yet the objective was achieved, and the brass is all super happy.

December 25, 2010- There have been attacks all over the place. It's been real chaotic over the past few days, as enemy planes have been using hit and run attacks on us, and we go on quick attacks in return. We've been helping the Gothans clear out an area of Yuke resistance, called Zone C. Today, I did my good deed for the day. On return from one mission, we hear radio traffic. It was the Gothan fighters to the west and they were under heavy attack by a large number of enemy bandits. Myself, Shark, Alien, X-Ray, and Angel debated amongst ourselves and decided to go help to the chagrin of the AWACS and Orca. We had sufficient fuel and weapons. I figured the enemy would split up upon our arrival. So we targeted some at long range. Only 3 missiles hit; mine hit as well as Shark's and Angel's. But it was enough to relieve the pressure on the Gothan fighters. I told the flight to "banana split", or split into 2 separate flights of 2 (for a 5 plane formation)and fire on any enemy they saw. This helped break up the furball. All of us managed to shoot down 1 apiece. Then all of the sudden, some more come in. So I roll left, and fire a 3rd missile at the lead plane, it only clipped the wing. Then I managed to get behind one fighter and blow him away with machine guns. I was on fire. So did that twice more and the enemy fighters went away. Bethany's Banshee: 31, Yukes: 0. I don't care about the reprimand, we saved those guys. They were very appreciative.

December 27, 2010- Bethany's Banshee strikes again! I shot down an AWACS today. So our squadrons in the air, and all of the sudden, a bunch of enemy fighters show up. Business as usual. But then, I looked up...and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I told Shark I thought it was an enemy AWACS. It was kinda lower than usual. With my eyes on bigger quarry we set off to take out the monstrosity. We moved in fast at 50,000 ft. 4 escort fighters came to engage us. But they were in Su-17s and Mig-23s. Too easy. We just blew through them, then we're on the edge of our seats trying to nail this AWACS. It drops chaff as Shark launches missiles at it, but I push forward and fire at one engine with my machine guns. It just blows up, the wing's on fire, and it just rolls and falls as people try to bail out. A lot of the fighters bugged out having no command or control. 2 remained, and one fell to my Sparrow missile. Orca was still upset I was taking all these risks. Who the hell is he talking to? He has hardly been in combat. Shark agreed. So now I have 35 kills. We had another party that night. Bethany gave me these pills I can take to get rid of hangovers. They're pretty good. I talked to her and my son today, and wished my son a happy birthday promising him I'd be home soon. Frankly, that's just wishful thinking. Our guys in the Cinigrad area _still_ cannot dislodge the Yukes. Jay is forced to endure one of the coldest winters in history; it's getting really bad and our army's taking a lot of casualties. On a more positive note, Candy and Shark are planning for a February wedding though. Why the hell do people get married in winter?

December 29, 2010- Today was the most bizzare day in my life. The war's over...just like that. Unbelievable. Earlier, we were attacked by Yuke ships and carriers. Another battle was under way. We were prepared to fight. All of us were just there again for another day at the office as enemy fighters engage. As we prepare to engage, they break off; the AWACS called in. Diomedes, also voiced by a cute sounding fancy-voiced female, announced in these exact words, _**"All aircraft will cease offensive operations at this time. I repeat, all aircraft will cease offensive operations at this time. Standby for a transmission from Central Command..." **What the hell was going on? _I thoughtthat as the president came over the radio. Where the hell had he been? Who in the blue hell was _they_? What was the other country involved? We did, however, celebrate back on the carrier after a long period of awkward looks. But now, the euphoria has died a bit. I feel sick now. Who was it? Where are you...?

January 1, 2011- Happy new year or whatever. I can't celebrate really. We're finally going home after nearly 9 months at sea. I got a promotion to Lt. Commander. What a underwhelming gift. What was it all for? My combat record means nothing now. The 35 Yuke insignias on my plane mean nothing. I had shot down 35 enemy aircraft and flew some 56 combat sorties ranging from air superiority, interdiction, interception, anti-shipping, fleet defense, close air support. My only reward is survival and my family. Despite naming my plane after Bethany, I felt her soul wasn't there. I've been used by some prick in a foreign country. What am I gonna tell people back home about this? I don't even-I don't even feel like writing anymore. Stallion, Python, Screamer, Squirrel, all the guys on the Pisces, Oriskany, St. Marianne, Tiger, those poor people in Anzia, that road, that endless road of death all for nothing.

January 15, 2011- So Shark actually asks me what I'm going to do when I get home. What am I gonna do...what every soldier does when they get home from war. They go home, they make love to their significant other, play ridiculous games with your children(provided they have one or both of the previous), and go out and get drunk. What better way to celebrate the end to all this misery than with decent food, sex, booze, and childish shenanigans? I can sense land in the distance. Maybe I'll get a tattoo. Nah.

January 28, 2011- It has taken us several refuels, a few detours and such; but we've finally made it home. We got there at about the same time as the 4th Marines got back. So they were playing the themes and we were just so happy to be there. We were all decked out in our finest. Then they dismissed us. I forgot the speech, and I just kinda ran home. Our return was supposed to be surprise. They, the local community, had actually planned a big welcoming party they next day. So it was that Bethany was so shocked to see me, it was like she suffered 2 simultaneous heart attacks. It was good just to feel her...to physically feel her; she was real and it wasn't a dream. But many were as not fortunate as some of us. There were some homes that not quite full. I took a brief look outside as Bethany and Junior would continue to celebrate my return. There was one family that moving out. That family had lost both their sons who were flight deck crews killed in the "Battle of the Pacific Ocean" as they're calling it. I couldn't watch it. Who's responsible? The process of elimination narrows it down to Belka; and they can rot in Hell for all I care. The amazing thing is that no wants to hear the stories. Especially my family...they don't give a crap. I don't have to tell them anything; they're happy I'm alive. Although, if I'm called back into action to kick the crap out them...I would gladly sign up.

Lieutenant Commander Peter "Howler" Moore was awarded the Angel Cross, the second highest medal any soldier can win for gallantry in action on February 18, 2011. He was also the awarded the Navy Cross, the Osean Navy's variant of the Angel Cross, on March 1, 2011. The newly elected Gothan Prime Minister Renee Delahount personally awarded Moore with the Green Crescent Medal on April 19, 2011. He was only foreign soldier to earn Gotha's highest military honor. He and his wife would go on to have 3 more children, one of which was named after his fallen comrade Will "Stallion" Laversby, and became a aggressor pilot with the 168th Naval Combat Training Squadron in May 2016.

Author's note: The band Darts of Pleasure is just another name for Franz Ferdinad and the actual song is called "This Fire".


	4. Epilogue: The Final Tally

Epilogue: The Final Tally

February 24, 2011- The world's still at peace, but there was one lingering detail. We have a board with everyone's kill record from the war. But in the spirit of the peace now, the board was taken down. But regardless, I went around and painstakingly recovered all the kill totals from every pilot in the wing. I guess I needed something to do. But the list was so exhaustive, I just listed the aces on my own personal list. So...here it is. All the aces from the OFS Neptune and Pisces.( An indicates those killed in action)

LTC Peter Moore "Howler"- 35

Captain John Dulles - 29(15-Belkan War)

Lt. Will Laversby "Stallion"- 23

LTC Dave Owens "Shark" - 20

LTC John Wright "X-Ray"- 18

Commander Mark Desola "Romeo"- 17

LTC Milton Cartwright "Alien"- 16

Commander Mara Kikado "Kikader" - 14

Lt. Mary Weaver "Candy" - 12

LJG Jesse Washington "Turtle" -10

Lt. Frank Martin "Comet" - 9

Lt. Noel Messerschmitt "Angel"- 8

Lt. Hartz Otigo "Chaos"- 7

LTG Andrew Cross "Cougar"- 6

LJG Jenny Glaas "Piper" - 5

LTG Charles Van Der "Axel"- 5

LTG Doug Dawson "Skip"- 5

Lt. Javier Davis "Copperhead"- 5

LTC Greg Miller "Scarab" -5

LTC Jay Ellison "Footloose"- 5

Lt. Jack Elliot "Spider" - 5

LTG Chris Christopher "Shox" - 5

Commander Art Mathews "Orca" - 5

LTC Elizabeth Morrison "Dot" - 5

LJG William Lester "Smoke" - 5

LJG Chester Zapada "Rubber" - 5

As a sort of post script, Shark and Candy got married 3 weeks ago. They kinda flattered me telling everybody they want to name their first kid, assuming it's a boy, after me. Intresting. Actually, now that I think about it, I did have the pleasure of meeting a guy who survived the Kestrel's sinking. I couldn't believe that we lost the Kestrel too. What was his name..Captain Snow. That was his name. I ran into him on the street one day. We start talking about our war stories. So he introduces me to his friends. Charles, Penny, and Donovan. Ya know, this Charles guy looked familar to me. He looked like a guy I used to dislike. The resemblance was not uncanny though. This Charles and Penny were real close. But Donovan kept asking me like 9,000 questions. Jeez, what a loon. I've been in contact with all of them since. They're really cool people. The weird thing was that even though they were civilians, they were not confused when I was talking about the specifics of my air to air exploits. They were actually quite impressed. Wait a minute...could they really be...nah. It's impossible. I must be going crazy.


End file.
